ragen70 rages, scoring a million dollar week

Once again, the big action this week followed Viktor “Isildur1” Blom as he headed to the highest stakes 2-7 Triple Draw and 8 Game tables on FTP to take on Niklas “ragen70” Heinecker, Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond, Gus Hansen and others. Not surprisingly, those games produced this week’s biggest winners, and it’s biggest losers. Hell, even Gus Hansen put a six figure dent in the $14 million plus red ledger in this game. Let’s see who made the Elite Eight (or the Biggest Losers) and how they did it.

Elite Eight:

1 – Niklas “ragen70” Heinecker – With a $572,900 win on the 15th book-ended by a $103k win on the 20th, Heinecker locked in a stellar week that looked more like a Gun Hansen loss total than an Elite Eight leader’s score. But there it is. The win, totaling $1,034,706 in 27 sessions and 3044 hands, pushes Niklas to $4.6 million in profit for the year. #Boom

2 – Phil “OMGClayAiken” Galfond – It’s hard to say anything negative about coming in second on this list, but when your total isn’t even 20% of 1st place’s total…well, it looks a bit….small. But in 12 sessions and 1253 hands, Galfond racked up a 6-figure win that will crush the top prize in any Sunday major: $183,888. #RunItOnce

3 – Alexander “joiso” Kostritsyn – In Russia…yeah, the good players still beat you. Kostritsyn is one of those players online or in the live arena. Much of his $178,153 week (earned in 31 sessions over 4467 hands) can be chalked up to a $115k+ win vs. “Isildur1” in a short session of 8 game. Remember, this is the guy that came out of nowhere at the 2008 WSOP and cashed in 6 different times in 4 forms of poker, and has a $10k Aussie Million’s HORSE title under his belt. #GameSelection

4 – Gus Hansen – Wait, what? Yes, Gus Hansen. Taking $159,698 off his negative free fall, the Great Dane profited from “Isildur1”’s slip this week. 2-7 TD was the main vehicle to his success…amazing as it has been the key to his demise so often as well. The Gus Bus was rolling on a long haul route this week too – 42 sessions and 4277 hands to punch his ticked. #SpoilerAlert he’s running good already this week.

5 – “bbvisbadforme” – BBV has been in a tailspin since October, but this $150,748 score is enough to claw back nearly half-way to break even again in lifetime earnings. To his credit, BBV has been riding the swings out pretty well and continuing to mix it up with the best. Let’s hope it creates a stronger player and does not break the gutsy grinder. #BBVisGoodForTheGame

6 – “Crazy Elior” – He may be crazy, but Elior joins BBV in the halfway to lifetime break-even club this week with his 29 session, 6715 hand, $146,967 score. It’s the biggest spike on his lifetime earnings chart in a while. One more like this and we’ll start to see a player climbing the charts to the top of the big leagues…or the upswing on a win/loss yo-yo. Consistency folks. #ItsWhatsForWinners

7 – Vladimir “GVOZDIKA55” Shchemelev – like fellow Russian “joiso”, Shchemelev took the WSOP by storm in a variety of mixed games, becoming the first player to final table 3 $10k events in one year, and this week storms onto the Elite Eight. Staying away from his live strength in mixed games, Vladimir took most of this profit in PLO. After the dust cleared in his 23 session, 2433 hand week he’d stacked up $134,907. #Davaytee

8 – “Sanlker” – The German mystery man clocks in on the list AGAIN with a short workweek. Just 5 sessions totaling 1473 hands netted $84,517. Again, probably buying an M3 and cruising the Autobahn with this money…but maybe that is just in my jealous mind. #MustBeNice

Honorable Mention – Ike Haxton (9th, $70,681 in 11 sessions and 729 hands) for ALMOST cracking the Elite Eight with the fewest hands played in the top 15 results.

Biggest Losers:

1 – Viktor “Isildur1” Blom – Is this the END?!?! Nothing quite so dramatic. Considering his mammoth 97 session, 7551 hand week merely lost him $477,412. Considering the chunks we saw him losing to most of the Elite Eight, he balanced it out somewhere and did not eclipse the $500k mark for the week or wipe out even a quarter of his recent gains. #SwedishVariance

2 – Alexonmoon – Alex may be on the moon, but the earnings are in the toilet. Down $188,482 in a quick 912 hands over 18 sessions, this was not a moon shot, rather, an aborted launch. #HoustonWeHaveAProblem

3 – Rui Cao – After a few big weeks, Cao is taking it on the chin again. He seems to have called it quits quickly and walked off for a bit though as his $108,258 downswing came in just 12 sessions and 791 hands. #AyYa

Matt Waldron - iGaming.org Poker Specialist

Matt Waldron is an international journalist, writer, home brewer, poker player, and (when he’s not busy with all that) a professional in the product and brand development world. “Waldo” has covered the WPT, WSOP, EPT/NAPT and online poker since 2006 in some form or another and well – he hasn’t gotten tired of it yet.